Posted on 11/07/2012 5:32:07 AM PST by SJackson
In this election the Republican Party ran two wholly inoffensive blue state Republicans on a platform of jobs at a time when the economy was everyone’s chief concern and the incumbent had absolutely failed to fix the economy. And they lost.
The Monday — or Wednesday — morning quarterbacks will have a fine time debating what Mitt Romney should have done differently. The red Republicans will say that he should have been more aggressive and should have hit Obama on Benghazi. The blue Republicans will blame a lack of outreach to Latinos. Some will blame Sandy, others will blame Christie and many will point to voter fraud. And they will all have a point, but the makings of this defeat did not happen in the last two weeks; they happened in the last two years.
Mitt Romney won the primaries because he was electable. But, as it turned out, he really wasn’t electable after all. Not when the chief criteria of electability is having no opinion, no point of view and no reason to run for office except to win. Not when the chief criteria of being a Republican presidential nominee is being able to convince people that you’re hardly a Republican at all.
Romney was a star political athlete who had an excellent training regimen and coaching staff. But to win elections, you have to change people’s minds. It’s not enough to try hard or to fight hard; you have to fight for something besides the chance to round the bases. You have to wake people up to a cause.
The Republican comeback did not begin with innocuous candidates; it began with angry protesters in costumes and Gadsden flags marching outside ObamaCare town halls. The 2010 midterm election triumphs were not the work of a timorous establishment, but of a vigorous grassroots opposition. And once the Tea Party movement started the fire, the Republican establishment acted like the Tea Party had sabotaged their comeback and cut the ties with their own grassroots movement. Separated, the Republican grassroots and the Republican Party both withered on the vine.
The stunning 2010 midterm election victories happened because a conservative opposition loudly and vociferously convinced a majority of Americans that ObamaCare would be harmful to them. And then that fantastic engine of change was packed away and replaced with political consultants who were all focused on seizing the center and offending as few people as possible. But you don’t win political battles by being inoffensive. And you don’t win elections by avoiding conflict.
Is it any wonder that the 2012 election played out the way it did?
The Democrats in the Bush years were about as unlikable a party as could ever be conceived of. They were hostile, hateful and obstructionist. They spewed conspiracy theories at the drop of a hat and behaved in a way that would have convinced any reasonable person not to entrust them with a lawnmower, let alone political power. And not only were they rewarded for that by winning Congress, but they also went on to win the White House.
Why? Because dissatisfied people gravitate to an opposition. They don’t gravitate to a loyal opposition. They aren’t inspired by mild-mannered rhetoric, but by those who appear to channel their anger.
When the Republican Party sold out the Tea Party, it sold out its soul, and the only driving energy that it had. And there was nothing to replace it with. The Republican Party stopped being the opposition and became a position that it was willing to reposition to get closer to the center. Mitt Romney embodied that willingness to say anything to win and it is exactly that willingness to say anything to win that the public distrusts.
The elevation of Mitt Romney was the triumph of inoffensiveness. Romney ran an aggressive campaign, but it was a mechanical exercise, a smooth assault by trained professionals paid to spin talking points in dangerous directions. But, what if the voters really wanted a certain amount of offensiveness?
What if they wanted someone who mirrored their anger at being out of work, at having to look at stacks of unpaid bills and at not knowing where their next paycheck was coming from? What if they wanted someone whose anger and distrust of the government echoed their own?
Romney very successfully made the case that he would be a more credible steward of the economy. It was enough to turn out a sizable portion of the electorate, but not enough of it. He tried to be Reagan confronting Carter, but what was remarkable about Reagan, is that he had moments of anger and passion; electric flashes of feeling that stirred his audience and made them believe that he understood their frustrations. That was the source of Reagan’s moral authority and it was entirely lacking in Romney. And without that anger, there is no compelling reason to vote for an opposition party.
The establishment had its chance with Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor was everything that they could possibly want. Moderate, bipartisan and fairly liberal. With his business background, he could make a perfect case for being able to turn the economy around. They had their perfect candidate and their perfect storm and they blew it.
The Republican Party is not going to win elections by being inoffensive. It is not going to win elections by going so far to the center that it no longer stands for anything. It is not going to win elections by throwing away all the reasons that people might have to vote for it. It is not going to win elections by constantly trying to accommodate what it thinks independent voters want, instead of cultivating and growing its base, and using them as the nucleus for an opposition that will change the minds of those independent voters.
The Republican Party has tried playing Mr. Nice Guy. It may be time to get back to being an opposition movement. And the way to do that is by relearning the lessons of the Tea Party movement. The Democratic Party began winning when it embraced the left, instead of running away from it. If the Republican Party wants to win, then it has to embrace the right and learn to get angry again.
Rick and Newt would have stood a much better chance against the Narcissist in Chief than Etch A Sketch ever did. We told you in the primaries that he wasn’t electable.
...delusions die hard, don’t they...Rick sure did a bang up job agaisnt Bob Casey, didn’t he? And Newt? He fumbled his one chance at glory by making the sleazeball Bill Clinton look like a statesman in personal confrontation...
Rick and Newt would have stood a much better chance against the Narcissist in Chief than Etch A Sketch ever did. We told you in the primaries that he wasn’t electable.
...delusions die hard, don’t they...Rick sure did a bang up job agaisnt Bob Casey, didn’t he? And Newt? He fumbled his one chance at glory by making the sleazeball Bill Clinton look like a statesman in personal confrontation...
Don’t be so down-in-the-mouth. Buck up, man. There is one way out of this: SECESSION. Look at the red-blue map by county. Do you see a new international border there? I sure do. Let’s secede. It’s the only way to keep the shackles off our legs.
A public bookmark for this excellent article. This should be required reading for everyone claiming either conservatism or Republicanism as a political philosophy.
The Republican Party needs to either embrace its base or die. And at this point I really don’t care which option it chooses.
For the umpteenth time, “moderates” don’t win. Conservatives do. Look at 2010.
What we must do is MAKE every single Obama voter OWN the darkness and despair that is coming, and we must make them own it EACH AND EVERY DAY. Since we have lost the opportunity to instill American values in children due to the stranglehold that liberals hold on the school system, the only alternative is to force them to face the ugly results of their now foolish choices and hope that they will learn from the school of hard knocks.
I would make this a persistent and sustained PR campaign, coupled with each of us doing the same at the individual level. Economic collapse that makes 2008-2009 look like a picnic is now inevitable. The fantasy that we can “tax the rich” and avoid any pain for the rest of us, which I think drove much of yesterday’s result, will eventually be exposed for the nonsense that it is. When it is, and when Obama starts taxing everyone else to death, we need to remind the zombies that Obama said he wasn’t going to raise their taxes. It was all going to be easy and painless.
When they end up in personal economic peril as a result, don’t offer to help them. That’s only enabling them. Instead return to a constant drumbeat of “You voted for this. You figure it out.” When things become dire enough, survival instinct might, might cause them to finally grow up and learn how life actually works.
In essence, we should employ the same tactics that the left used against Bush (and amazingly still does): Blame Obama for EVERYTHING. In his case he will actually have earned the blame.
Beat it into their heads 24/7, 365 days a year. Admittedly, without a compliant media it will be tougher for us so we will have to take more personal responsibility, on an individual level, to do it.
We must use the left’s tactics against them because we now have ample evidence that they WORK. At least in the case of what I’m suggesting, we wouldn’t have to sacrifice our principles (”sink to their level”) to do so. We would simply be telling the truth.
118 million people voted in 2012, but 130 million voted in 2008. About 12 million sat out. GOP need to find out who they are. I bet they are Ron Paul supporters, and Evangelical Christians. For the Dems it is Reagan Dems who will not support Obama but not willing to vote GOP either.
I have to be totally honest, I’m totally pissed right now. I’m a conservative independent and proud of it. This isn’t the country I fought for in Nam, when my Country called. Living in the South Western corner of PA does not make me a popular voter. However, I’m going to take every advantage I can to stand up and be counted for what I believe in, like it or not. I’ve had it, and I’m thoroughly disgusted with a large segment of my Country Men and Women.
We have “raised” a spoiled and selfish child as a nation, who says “thanks old man, for the freedom, the infrastructure and the money, now get out of the way and let the smart kids drive.” We need to do exactly that. Stop pulling the wagon.
The next time the shit hits the fan, no old white guys to clean up the mess. The next time a hurricane wipes out an urban cancer, don’t go clean it up for them. Nothing makes you a conservative faster than having to take care of your own problems.
But sadly, the lesson may just be too late in getting learned. This one was a BIG loss. Either the GOP-led House steps up, or else we are all going to be witnesses to the end of the American Experiment. *sigh*
Ouch. Excellent point, and needs to be repeated. The GOP Moderate Wing has just been shown that they do NOT motivate the base or the Tea Party wing, even when they nominate a decent VP. It's time to drop the pretense that the GOP can out-Dem the Dems. Romney lost his home state by a HUGE 61-37 margin. Clearly, going Moderate pulls NOBODY from the Left, and leaves MANY on the Right sitting it out.
If THIS election result doesn't teach the GOP "leadership" that lesson, then they will never learn it, and it is time to oust them or start a new party. There are no other good alternatives.
The Tea Party is “inoffensive,” except for fiscally, and has no room for criticism on this and neither does Frontpage Magazine for the Tea Party.
It is difficult to understand where the Frontpage or the Tea Party is coming from on this, since the TPs are secularists themselves and refuse to embrace God the Creator and His laws and refuse to claim our founding Christian heritage. Is it any wonder they(the GOP nor the TP) have no blessings from God to succeed?
Social issues matter.
Here’s what’s happening.... people who quote writers from the year 1700 in the year 2012.
BTTT
Yep. All historians know that once the people can vote themselves money from the treasury, read: welfare, the country is doomed. Nothing in our Constitution allows for taxing one person to give their wealth to another. This nation was built on “No taxation without representation!”, yet, we have it. We are doomed and nothing can save us from that fate.
Bingo! Give the man a prize. The banks screwed virtually everyone while Nero (every President since Reagan and a compromising Congress) was playing the fiddle and chasing after phantoms. The economic collapse creating more welfare/foodstamp/unemployed young people where idealism concerning conservative principles has been starched out. Like Europe (with its endless wars), a large class of people have been created who are now looking to Government and the rhetoric of collectivism as their panacea.
You’re so right, it’s ridiculous to blame Mitt.
Wasted time on contraceptives and the church and the ignorant comments that come out of ignorant conservatives mouths regarding rape.
Tea party conservative Ted Cruz won the US senate seat vacated by Texas' squishy moderate Kay Bailey Hutchison. So, at least one chalk mark on the plus side.
What makes you think a dictator will reign for 8 years?
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